Departing rabbi helped revive Hamilton shul

Rabbi Dan Selsberg

HAMILTON — The right rabbi at the right time. 

That’s what Rabbi Dan Selsberg was for Beth Jacob Synagogue in Hamilton.

It was 2006. Membership was down, debt was climbing and parts of the building were crumbling. Morale was low.

“When we met him, we felt he could he could breathe new life into the synagogue. He had a young family. He was very authentic and had a terrific sense of humour. We got a sense he was a person of integrity. That’s exactly how it unfolded,” said former Beth Jacob co-president Wendy Schneider, who along with co-president John Levy, was tasked at the time with finding a new rabbi.

Next month, Rabbi Selsberg and his family will leave Hamilton for Bridgewater, N.J., where he will take a position at Temple Sholom. Rabbi Selsberg stresses the only reason the family is leaving is a lack of local resources for his six-year-old son, Eitan, who has special needs. Rabbi Selsberg and his wife, Karen, also have twin 11-year-old boys, Sammy and Asher.

Beth Jacob is holding a gala dinner in honour of the Selsbergs on June 14.

When they arrived in Hamilton, Rabbi Selsberg had just been ordained by the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles. A Wisconsin native, he says he “knew from winter.”

“People greeted us warmly and never really stopped. They let me try new things. They never said ‘This is how we do it and it has to stay that way,’” he said.

“I think they had done some things that kept people away. They had ‘decorumed’ themselves out of existence. There was a formality that made some congregants feel self-conscious. For example, if their children made noise or acted up,” Rabbi Selsberg said. “Now, the compliment I most often get is that people feel very welcomed here.”

He said he and his family felt at home at Beth Jacob. 

“We really made great friendships and it’s a great neighbourhood. We are going to miss it,” Rabbi Selsberg said. “If I was successful here, it’s not just a measure of me. It’s that people have allowed me to develop my own voice and shown patience and a sense of humour. It’s a deep debt I owe to Beth Jacob and the folks who make it work here.”

When Cantor Eyal Bitton joined Beth Jacob in 2009, he saw immediately that Rabbi Selsberg was beloved.

“It’s clear as to why. There are individuals in public life with a little more personality and some with a little more knowledge of their field. Few have both, the way Rabbi Selsberg does,” said Cantor Bitton.

Schneider called Rabbi Selsberg’s sermons “magnificient.”

“He takes the study of Judaism very seriously and brings it down to a level lay people can understand,” she said. 

“His wife, Karen, has made a huge contribution, too. She taught a class for women, is involved with Jewish Social Services and was president of the Kehila [Jewish Community Day School] board. And their three boys captured our hearts.”

Hannah Schayer, the synagogue’s executive director, said Rabbi Selsberg is her rabbi, colleague and friend.

“In all of those different situations, he is extraordinarily consistent in how he deals with people,” Schayer said. “He shows the same respect to staff or any delivery person who comes to the office as he does to his congregation. That is a measure of the kind of person he is.”

Schayer believes the timing of Rabbi Selsberg’s tenure was “bashert” for the family and for the congregation.

“I can’t articulate how important it was to Beth Jacob’s history. We are stronger for having had him here and will build on his strength,” Schayer said. “He made the shul work. That will be his legacy.”

In addition to the gala, donations are also being accepted to the Rabbi Dan and Karen Selsberg Fund for Creative Jewish Life to support family programming at the synagogue. To donate or buy dinner tickets, call 905-522-1351.